Food Fight
by madelynrichardss
Summary: Not everyone has the chance to experience a good old fashioned food fight during their high school career. Fortunately, Clary Fray and Jace Lightwood do. Unfortunately, they're the ones who have to face the consequences.


**Author's Note:**

**Hello there. It's been awhile.**

**So for those of you that have read my other stories, ****_Just Friends? _****and ****_Waves Crash With A Purpose_****, you know that I recently started school again and that's why I haven't been posting at all. But this little one-shot idea popped up in my head awhile ago and I finally managed to finish it.**

**So again, this is a one-shot, possibly a short two-shot.**

**~Maddie**

As of this moment, there is no inch of the high school cafeteria that isn't covered with food. It seemed like there was no safe spot to be free of the mashed potatoes and corn with a side of green beans- today's special. People had flipped over tables to block them from what they could but others were completely engaged in the war. Screams and laughs echoed through the giant room as Clary Fray attempted to crawl through the mass of people to escape the insanity. Of course the one time out of the entire school year that she had decided to buy lunch instead of bring it from home, this monstrosity occurs. Her best friend, Simon Lewis, still remains waiting for her in the peaceful green grass just outside the front of the school where they've sat for the past four years of high school and she was determined to get back to him in one piece.

Just as she has reached halfway towards the exit she felt something splatter against the side of my face. The juice of whatever is now embedded into her hair, burns from the corner of her eye and makes her gag from the salty taste. She wipes whatever it is off her skin and looks to the attacker. Her adrenaline starts to pump faster as golden boy, Jace Lightwood, has a look of success smothered across his smirking face along with the white cream of potatoes. It's as if in slow motion she stands from her knees and reaches for a pile of muck to her side just as he reaches for another hand full from a tray on the table in front of him. Both are in their own little war with trying to nail each other with food they don't see the main cafeteria doors open and a crowd of suits move in. Clary's jaw drops and Jace's eyes widen as their handfuls attack the woman everyone knows to be the superintendent from both sides. The room grows deadly silent and completely still. Both their names are being shouted by the other administration that knows them both personally. Superintendent Herondale just stands there not moving which is probably scarier than her going on a rampage. Slowly she looks down to examine her now potato covered, navy blue pant suit. Her eyes look from me to Jace and then me again until finally she nods and turns back around, now facing Principal Morgenstern.

She makes a 'humph' sound and shakes her in a disapproving manner. "Valentine I am very displeased by the way you run your school." Her voice sounds like she's shouting with how unpleasantly silent it is throughout the room. "If you'll excuse me, it seems that I need a new change of attire." Some of the other administrators leave and follow her out the door, probably trying to assure that the school doesn't gain bad reviews, but Principal Morgenstern and the dean of students remain.

The door slams shut and suddenly Morgenstern's face has twisted into one of the nastiest looks I've seen from him. "This is not the way we run things here." His voice booms throughout the room and echoes into everyone's ears, almost splittingly. The bell rings indicating the end of lunch and beginning of 5th hour but no one makes a move to leave. "Get to class." He says in a much lower tone. "Now!" He screeches and everyone's all of a sudden fighting to get out as if the cops have come and they're all in possession of something illegal. Clary, being her naturally short self, tries and fails to cower inside the crowd of students. "Except for you two." His voice snaps louder than the rush of students and there's no need to turn to know who he's talking about. People look at the two of them with a variety of looks. Some amused and proud they had gotten off the hook, others completely guilty like they pair shouldn't be the only ones who were in trouble. Once everyone escaped and the four of them all stood in silence is when Clary's heart started to really race. She had never gotten in major trouble before and never really planned on it. "I should suspend the both of you." His head snaps to Jace. "Especially you Lightwood."

Jace looks down to look at the ground but a smirk is still evident on his face. Obviously this isn't the first time he had been in trouble with the school.

"But I won't." His voice quiets down to a normal level and has full attention of both students. "Since this is Ms. Fray's first offense, and a separate punishment for both of you isn't technically allowed, you'll both be assigned cleanup duty while you wait for your entire punishment. Active immediately."

"The entire cafeteria?" Clary asks immediately regretting it when Morgenstern's glare is practically burning her entire body from the fury in his eyes.

"Yes, Ms. Fray. The entire cafeteria."

"But what about class?" She had never missed class before. Perfect attendance had been an ongoing thing since grade school. This hardly seemed fair, she'd miss valuable class time.

"Clary's right, that's a little extreme." Jace's voice is heard for the first time and everyone's eyes are on him. Morgenstern's because of his questioning and Clary's because she didn't realize he even remembered her first name.

"Keep talking or I _will _suspend you." He points with his pointer finger at both of them. With a few more heated glares, he turns, the dean on his heels, and calls over his shoulder where the cleaning supplies will be and then Clary and Jace are left a lone with a final slam of the heavy metal doors.

It's silent between them as they both comprehend what exactly just happened and then Jace lets go of a long breath and scratches the back of his neck.

"This is all your fault." Clary snapped and Jace kind of stepped back at the sudden blow.

"Excuse me?" He asked, amusement forming into a smirk. "We both threw something."

"Well I wouldn't have thrown anything if you hadn't purposefully thrown food at my head." She pointed to the right side of her head where the food still remained planted in her hair.

"Oh because I totally was aiming for you specifically." He narrowed his eyes at her, his mouth slightly agape.

"You looked straight at me, of course it was on purpose!" It was clear Clary was growing angrier with each step she took the janitor closet in the corner of the cafeteria. While she walked towards it she swore she could hear him chuckle and mumble something under his breath but he wasn't facing her when she turned around so she couldn't tell and didn't have the energy to retaliate anymore. She grabbed a rag and a bottle of something purple while inside the closet. On her way out she ran into a wall of flesh and just glared at his crooked smile. Instead of grabbing what Clary had grabbed, he pulled out the mop bucket to start on the floor. They both worked without speaking and the only noise that came from either was groans of disgust or the screeches of chairs.

Clary moved to start lifting up the fallen tables but soon realized each table weighed twice as much as she did.

"Here." Jace stopped mopping to move and help Clary lift the table, given he did more of the lifting. A silent agreement passed through them and they started lifting each table that had been pushed over.

"Hold on." Clary held her hand up and Jace leaned against one of the tables to wait as Clary took off her maroon colored sweater, leaving her in just a black tank top. After she set it down by the door with the rest of her and Jace's stuff, she walks back over to the table and Jace. Her eyes narrow as she catches Jace staring at her. "What?"

"You have…" He points behind her back. "A tattoo."

Her face heats up from blushing so she looks behind her to look at her tattoo to recover and look over her tattoo in the center of her shoulder blades. "Yeah." She mumbles incoherently under her breath.

"Well what is it?" Jace moves to walk around Clary but she angles her back out of his sight.

"It's nothing." She snaps with much more force than he had thought. "Can we just finish this please? I'd really like to be finished by the end of the day."

It takes him awhile to respond. Clary's eyes remained everywhere but on his own. She could tell Jace was trying to read her but he bit his bottom lip to stop himself from answering back. She let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding and moved back to her spot while her and Jace continued flipping the rest of the tables.

Once they were done with that, Clary had moved over to the glass windows where she wiped the gunk off and Jace continued his previous job of mopping. It felt like every second his gaze would find it's way over to Clary. They had been working for the past two hours by now and hadn't talked after Clary snapped at them. But now she had her back to him so he could distinctively see what was on her back.

"A butterfly?" He called out and saw her visibly tense. "That's what you were trying to hide?"

She doesn't turn around, just stands there in her frozen state. Slowly she remains wiping up and down the glass. "Why are you watching me?"

"What's the story behind it?" Jace set the mop aside and found himself walking closer to Clary.

"Do you always answer questions with questions?" He could see her hand start to rub harder against the window.

"Do you?" He could feel a smirk appear on his face by the way he was making her react. His arms came up across his chest in an almost dominant way. Her hand fell from the window before she turned around to face him, fury eyes and all.

"I have a tattoo too." He says dropping his arms down back to his sides. "I'll tell you about mine if you tell me about yours." Her body position and posture didn't change so he added one more thing. "Unless, you know, you'd rather continue wiping that already clean window… but that's cool, I guess that is more interesting." He turned and took slow steps away from hers but stopped when he heard her sigh.

"Fine." This time she was the one to cross her arms but in a more defensive way. "What is yours?"

She watched as he turned with a small grin and held up his pointer finger to gesture her to come closer. Hesitantly she walked closer to where he was sitting atop the new clean table.

"Pull down the neck of my shirt." He said as he turned around so his back faced Clary. When she didn't react to what he said he turned and smiled at her. "I don't bite Clary."

She rolled her eyes and brought her hand up to the back of his neck. His dark grey cotton shirt was soft against her fingertips as she slowly brought pulled down the collar. She hadn't been expecting to see what she saw. Maybe a bad word or a logo to his favorite clothing store, but not this.

"A crown?" She asked more directed at herself than at Jace. It was a trace of a basic crown placed in between a circle of opposite leaves all in black and white. "I don't get it." Her fingers lingered at the base of his neck longer than she'd like to admit but when he turned back to face her, she pulled her hand back.

"You're not supposed to." He looked her in the eye and rubbed the back of his neck subconsciously. "Do you know the book The Wild Things?" He asked, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees.

"The children's book?" Clary's eyes narrowed in confusion as Jace nodded.

"It's the little boy's crown from the book." He paused. "It was my brother's favorite book. He passed away around four years ago." The cafeteria seemed to instantly grow entirely silent. Not even the rush of students outside leaving school could be heard as they just looked at each other.

"Max." Clary managed out in a whisper. She remembered Max. She also remembered the day in 8th grade when all three Lightwood siblings missed the last couple weeks of middle school. Clary had never been friends with them but no one was really a stranger when it came to the siblings. "Jace…"

"No it's fine." He raised a hand to wave it off but something still remained in his body language and the smile on his face seemed forced. "Besides it's your turn."

Something inside her wanted to make him talk about; to take that pained expression off his face, but she knew she wouldn't be able to do that with him.

"Butterflies are God's proof that we have a chance at a second life." Clary said, her eyes still locked into place with Jace's. "That's what my tattoo stands for." Something like understanding passed through Jace's eyes. He just slowly nodded and his lips pursed together.

For a long moment neither said anything to each other. As the silence continued, Clary starts to shift back and forth suddenly realizing they had been staring at each other for quiet some time now. The wet rag in her hand reminds her of the task at hand and she finally breaks eye contact to turn and continue wiping down the table.

"That makes sense." Jace is suddenly standing next to her with a slight smile set on his face. He leans the back of his thighs against the table and grabs the edge with his hands. "In the fifth grade you'd always have butterflies drawn on your papers whenever you'd turn work in. I thought you just had some weird butterfly fetish." Clary rolled her eyes and listened while still wiping down the table. "I remember that because that was the same year you turned down my valentine's gift to you." A small chuckle escapes Clary's lips and she has to bite her tongue to stop. "Then you proceeded to turn me down again next year when I asked you to the sixth grade dance." From the corner of her eye, Clary could see Jace shaking his head. She couldn't help but smile when she looked up and saw him playfully glaring at her. "Clary Fray, always so cruel to little innocent me." He reached out and jokingly pushed a little on her shoulder. As she scoffs, Clary tries to keep her eyes on her hands instead of turning to meet Jace's. She could practically feel Jace's eyes burning through her skin. "You know I had the biggest crush on you."

This made Clary stop and turn to look at him again. He bit his lip a little knowing he got her attention back. "Shut up." Clary swatted his arm with the rag in her hand.

His hand went up protectively to his shoulder where she hit him. "I'm serious." He said, his eyes becoming brighter with the genuine smile he had.

"Yeah okay." Clary shook her head and mumbled sarcastically while bowing her head to hide her blush.

"You never gave me a chance." When Clary looked at him he was looking down at the ground. His honey colored hair covered his eyes as it fell over his face. In his position he was standing in, he didn't seem like his usual self as he sort of cowered inwards. When he looked up he was suddenly a different person. Like a shy Jace.

Clary's mouth opened to say something when one of the cafeteria doors swung open.

"Fray. Lightwood." Principal Morgenstern came in holding a folder tightly to his chest and a briefcase in his falling hand. His eyes scanned over the room with no expression on his face. "Amateur job but good enough." Both Clary and Jace seemed to stand straighter as he stepped closer to them. "Detention. Both of you. For a month. Skip it and I wont hesitate from keeping you both from graduating." Then he spun on his heel and was gone.

"I guess school's been over." Jace said clearing his throat and Clary just nodded. When she turned to sneak a glance at him, his eyes were already on hers. He seemed much closer than he had been a few moments ago. His hand reached up and Clary could feel the warmth radiating from his hand on her cheek. His knuckles brushed against her skin as his fingers messed with her hair. She fought hard to keep her eyes from fluttering from his touch. Then his eyes were focused on something besides her own and he pulled something from her hair. Clary automatically turned red when he held up a single green bean. "Green's a good color on you." His words came out hushed as he chucked the bean into a nearby trashcan. "Let's get out of here. It's already four."

"There you are!" Simon popped up from his seat on one of the stone benches out in front of the school. "I thought you'd never get out of there." His eyes moved from his best friend to the boy walking along side her.

"I'll see you tomorrow Clary." Jace reached out and just barely touched right above Clary's elbow. She pursed her lips to keep from smiling too big and nodded, managing out a quiet 'sure'. He returned the small smile before walking away from the other two towards the student parking lot.

It was quiet between the friends as they waited until Jace was out of ear shot.

"A whole three and a half hours with Jace Lightwood. Must have been terrible." Simon looked at her with sympathy.

"It wasn't too bad." Clary turned slightly to watch the back of Jace on his walk to his car. She could see Jace secretly turn to look back at her but then trying to cover it up with making it seem like he was looking somewhere else.

"You ready to go?" Clary looked back to see Simon waiting patiently for her. She instantly perked up with the idea of leaving and nodded. It was quiet throughout the drive with Simon like it usually is except for when he asked about her other punishment Morgenstern gave Jace and her. "What a bummer." Simon had said at the mention of a month long detention sentence. Clary just nodded and stayed silent but to her, a month detention with Jace Lightwood didn't seem half bad.

**I will be posting and epilogue to ****_Waves Crash With A Purpose _****hopefully sometime soon my life is just a little hectic with school and work right now.**

**Let me know what you think of my first one-shot story! **


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